(1) "Agency" means all state departments, agencies,
authorities, quasi-public corporations and all political
subdivisions, including cities, counties, boards of education and
public service districts and the individual representatives of the
agency appointed to oversee or supervise the project.

(2) "Board" means the Design-Build Board established pursuant
to section four of this article to determine whether a public
project satisfies the requirements of this article.

(3) "Design-build" is defined as providing responsibility
within a single contract for design, construction or alteration of
a building or buildings, together with incidental approaches,
structures and facilities to be constructed, in which services
within the scope of the practice of professional engineering or
architecture, as defined by the laws of the State of West Virginia,
are performed by an engineer or architect duly licensed in the
State of West Virginia and in which services within the scope of
construction contracting, as defined by the laws of the State of
West Virginia, are performed by a contractor qualified and licensed
under the applicable statutes. The design-build method of
construction may not be used for any other construction projects,
such as highway, water or sewer projects.

(4) "Design-build contract" means the contract between an
agency and a design-builder to furnish the architecture, engineering, and related services as required, for a given public
project, and to furnish the labor, materials and other construction
of services for the same public project. A design-build contract
may be conditional upon subsequent refinements in scope and price,
and may permit the agency to make changes in the scope of the
project without invalidating the design-build contract.

(5) "Design-builder" means the entity, whether natural person,
partnership, joint venture, corporation, professional corporation,
business association or other legal entity, that proposes to design
and construct any public project governed by the procedures of
section seven, article six of this chapter and this article.

(6) "Firm" means any individual, firm, partnership,
corporation, limited liability company, limited liability
partnership, association, joint venture or other legal entity
permitted by law to practice engineering, architecture or
construction contracting in the State of West Virginia.

(7) "Invitation for proposals" means the document or
publication by which an agency solicits proposals for a
design-build project.

(8) "Invitation for qualifications" means the document or
publication by which an agency solicits a statement of
qualifications from potential design-builders in order to select
three to five design-builders to respond to the agency's invitation
for proposal.

(9) "Performance criteria" means the requirements for the public project, including as appropriate, aesthetics, capacity,
durability, production standard, ingress and egress requirements or
other criteria for the intended use of the public project,
expressed in performance-oriented drawings and specifications
suitable to allow the design-builder to make a proposal.

(10) "Performance criteria developer" means an architect or
engineer licensed under the laws of this state and, if applicable,
the architect's or engineer's employer, company, partners, joint
venturers, affiliates or subcontractors retained by the agency to
develop performance criteria and to serve as the agency's technical
advisor.

(11) "Project" means that project described in the public
announcement.

(12) "Proposal" means an offer to enter into a design-build
contract, as further defined in this article.

(13) "Qualified design-builder" means one of the three to five
design-builders selected by the agency to respond to the invitation
for proposals.

(14) "Responsive proposal" means a proposal that scores a
minimum of seventy points out of a possible one hundred points in
the qualitative evaluation.

(15) "Statement of qualifications" means descriptive
information or other data submitted by a design-builder indicating
its ability to satisfy the requirements set forth in the invitation
for qualifications.

(16) "Substantial completion" means the stage in the progress
of the work when the work or designated portion thereof is
sufficiently complete in accordance with the design-build contract
so the agency can occupy or utilize the work for its intended use.

(17) "Technical review committee" means the group of
individuals who have education and experience in the design,
construction, operation, administration, and finance requirements
of the project and users of the project selected by the agency to
review, evaluate and score the statement of qualifications and
invitation for proposal.

(18) "Work" means the design, construction and services
required by the design-build contract, whether completed or
partially completed, and includes all other labor, materials,
equipment and services provided or to be provided by the
design-builder to fulfill the design-builder's obligations. The
work may constitute the whole or a part of the project.

Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2015 Regular Session
The WV Code Online is an unofficial copy of the annotated WV Code, provided as a convenience. It has NOT been edited for publication, and is not in any way official or authoritative.